Sandy Duncan to Star in North Carolina Theatre's DRIVING MISS DAISY this Spring

North Carolina Theatre (NCT), the region's premier producer of professional Broadway shows, has announced that Sandy Duncan has been cast in the title role of Driving Miss Daisy, playing Fletcher Auditorium in the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, May 2-11, 2014.

Sandy Duncan has had an illustrious stage career that spans five decades, making her debut performance at age 12 in The Dallas Summer Musicals production of The King and I. She earned rave reviews with her starring role in the Broadway revival of Peter Pan, for which she was nominated for a Tonyâ Award. Other Tonyâ Award nominations include her roles in Canterbury Tales and The Boyfriend. Additional stage credits; Broadway's My One and Only and Chicago, Circle Mirror Transformation at the George St Playhouse, Becky's New Car at Theater Aspen and A Body of Water at The Old Globe Theater, as well as The Music Man, Finian's Rainbow and The Sound of Music (all New York City Center). Sandy is widely recognized for her television roles such as in The Hogan Family and an iconic string of ads as the Wheat Thins Spokesperson. She has appeared in a myriad of other film and TV roles, receiving two Emmyâ nominations for her work as "Sandy Stockton" in Funny Face and "Missy Ann Reynolds" in Roots.

Directing the show will be Eric Woodall, whose credits include North Carolina Theatre's Steel Magnolias, Theatre Raleigh's August: Osage County. He is a current Resident Director of Mamma Mia! and a casting director with Tara Rubin Casting. Some of Eric's Broadway shows and national tours include: Bullets Over Broadway, Billy Elliot, Jersey Boys, Big Fish, Aladdin, Young Frankenstein, and Phantom of the Opera. Woodall is a Benson, North Carolina native.

"I am over the moon to be working with the amazing Sandy Duncan." says Director Eric Woodall. "How thrilling to have such an accomplished actress of stage, film and television join The North Carolina Theatre to play Daisy. And she is a native Southerner to boot! I can't wait to bring this adored character to life with one of America's most beloved actresses."

Driving Miss Daisy, written by Alfred Uhry in 1987, is a story about the relationship between an elderly white Southern Jewish woman, "Daisy Werthan," and her black chauffeur, "Hoke Colborn." Winner of the Putlizer Prize Award, and an Academy Award- Winning film, the story explores race relations set in the backdrop of the inequality and civil unrest of the American south in the late 1940's. The play originally opened off-Broadway on April 15, 1987 and has since been performed around the world.